Date: Fri 12-Mar-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

edink-office-space-town-hall

Full Text:

ED INK: Too Tight A Squeeze At Edmond Town Hall

When the ad hoc municipal space needs committee makes its report to the Board

of Selectmen this month, it appears the panel will recommend the $18 million

expansion and renovation of Edmond Town Hall. The plan would consolidate all

town offices, including the Board of Education in the Main Street facility,

ensuring that town goverment will remain on Main Street as it has always been.

The plan would follow, true to form, the town's tendency in recent years to

expand on the legacy of Newtown's legendary benefactress Mary Hawley. The

Hawley School and the Booth Library, both built with Miss Hawley's money, have

been enlarged and upgraded by the town for $4 million each. In the case of

Edmond Town Hall, however, the same strategy presents problems.

By concentrating all municipal business at one Main Street location, the town

will exacerbate the existing parking nightmare at Edmond Town Hall. The

proposal calls for a 23,000 square foot addition to the back and sides of the

building (an expansion roughly the same size as the Booth Library's addition),

creating a demand for new parking while eliminating some existing parking. In

their attempt to address a calculated parking space shortfall of 90 spaces,

the space needs committee last week decided that the problem could be solved

not adding spaces but by eliminating demand. They proposed to do away with the

Tuesday afternoon matinee at the town hall movie theater.

We thought the premise of the space needs committee's work was to upgrade and

improve the town's aging facilities. Their best proposal, however, is

predicated on eliminating $2 movies on Tuesday afternoon, which are enjoyed by

hundreds of senior citizens in the area who are reluctant to drive at night.

What kind of future are we planning for if the first step is to eliminate

something so popular with a segment of the population that, frankly, we should

be serving better? This is not improvement. This is making do. If we are going

to spend $18 million on town facilities, we should do more than make do.

Edmond Town Hall is an important part of Newtown's history, and the town's

government should continue to maintain a presence there. It is not practical,

however, to try to cram all the town's boards, agencies, and services onto a

site not suited for such an intensive use. For the past 20 years, town

services have been delivered effectively from more than a single location, and

it is reasonable to expect that good service can continue from more than one

place. With the new land and facilities at Fairfield Hills that have come to

the town from the state, and with the long-shot possibility of the town's

aquisition of the 186-core campus of Fairfield Hills, the Newtown does have

better options for solving its office space needs.